[weibby]

I have a clip+ with a dying battery.
Need to change it but thats quite easy i believe, is there anyone who can give me ideas on how to mod the clip+ itself?

Say like imod straight to an LOD?

 

[Guidostrunk]

I was hoping for the same thing to use with my shadow for a micro portable setup, but from what i found out from a friend of mine here on the forum it can't be done. oh well HPO it is. Cheers p.s. i was hoping for LOD cable.

 

[weibby]

thats a pity.
all hope is not dash yet!

 

[dazzer1975]

whats the dac chip in the clip+?

 

[weibby]

SanDisk Sansa Clip+ Plus Disassembly

 

[dazzer1975]

if you can get a spec sheet for the chip then wouldn't it simply be a case of tapping the left and right channels from the dac pins directly and the ground from somewhere?

 

[Aevum]

i can only think of 3 worthy mods for the clip,
1) secundary battery using the battery solder points
2) Full size SD slot using the solder points for the microSD slot (or that nice MicroSD to SD convertor from Dealextreme
3) tapping in to the circuit between the preamp and the amp to produce a line out, which could be interesting but difficult considering the cheapness factor of the clip,

since you want to do a the battery, its a simple solder job, you can clip the cable in the middle to avoid soldering to the board itself, check photo number 9, as for sourcing the battery, it can probobly be ordered OEM, the question is, is it cheaper then getting the lowest clip available on the market and raiding it for parts, as for fitting a bigger battery, well theres an issue here, if you examine the clip casing, its composed of 2 pieces (well, 3 considering the main control D pad), all the holes and connectors are in the back piece which also holds the electronics and the battery, so adding space with a spacer bracket between both pieces isnt an option, giving us 2 options, the ugly and the nasty,

the ugly would be to remove the clip and use a dremel to turn the back piece of the casing making the back casing a spacing bracket, you fit a bigger battery and then use a custom molded piece to cover the extra battery,

the nasty would be to drill an extra hole from which to extract the battery cables, i susbect black being mass, red being current and blue being the probe (the battery indicator isnt based on voodoo) and have a secundary casing holding the battery, that way you can just grab any generic cellphone bettery with silimar contacts, solder it on, and even the most misrable cellphone battery will easly double your clips battery life, but dont go overboard, my nokia E71 has a 1500mA 3.7v battery which is voltage compatible and could keep the clip running for 60+ hours, but its size makes it a bit problematic to use with a clip,

 

[Guidostrunk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dazzer1975 /img/forum/go_quote.gif if you can get a spec sheet for the chip then wouldn't it simply be a case of tapping the left and right channels from the dac pins directly and the ground from somewhere?

I would be willing to donate the guinea pig( clip) for the possibility of the clip having a line out feature even if it is a hard wired deal. Maybe remove the headphone out jack to run the wires out of that hole and just put a mini plug at the end. Or if theres a way that the usb jack has some way of it being tapped into, it would be like having a mini LOD jack. Anyway i have no clue on whats inside these things, I'm just hoping someone can make it happen. Like i said though from a good source here that i already asked to do it for me said it can not be done.Cheers

 

[weibby]

I'm very interested in 3.
clip+ imod.

Now just need to know where to solder.

 

[Guidostrunk]

Anyone else have any input. Cheers

 

[weibby]

okay according to this site -
SanDisk AMS Sansa Series

I believe the Clip+ should be using the same controller chip which is the AMS AS3525.

Analog Integrated Microcontrollers / Mobile Entertainment / Products / Home - austriamicrosystems AG

Datasheet PDF - http://www.austriamicrosystems.com/e...d/16763/295720

So with the datasheet and the picture of the innards,
Can someone point out where do tap to get the preamp out?

 

[dazzer1975]

looking at it straight on line out left appears to be the 5th pin up from the bottom right hand corner, line out right looks to be the 6th pin up.

you'd have to find a ground from somewhere on the player too I'd imagine.

I'm looking at this in a really simplified way.

But, taking the principle of the diymod on the ipods, as long as you can tap out from the l and r line out pins on the chip, then find a ground, do the same, then I see no reason why you cant feed them outside of the casing, wire it into a capped lod/,ini jack and you're good to go?

It's going to be INCREDIBLY mental trying to solder to the chip pins directly though, not impossible as I did the diymod direct to the chip pins and I had barely held a soldering iron for more than ten minutes at that point and I dont know what the spacing is on the clips chip?

 

[weibby]

I was discussing with some folks.

Apparently the pin is in the middle and you'd need to rework the BGA.

from the spec sheet, there is a dedicated lineout on the chip itself.
now how do i tap it out lol.

The chip used is page 172 btw.

 

[dazzer1975]

n4 for loutr and n7 for loutl

p8 for ground?

anyway, those are the pin outs according to that, as its underneath the chip, then I presume it would either be a case of tapping into the trace, which I think would be pretty much impossible, or that the poster above who said it was impossible to provide a true line out on the clip was totally correct.

But it would be pretty cool if a way to sort it was to be found ... if at all possible.